Well its good to be back playing online. Its been a tough few months with all the Ops ive had and meds i been taking.So i decided to get back to playing online a couple of days ago as now i am on less meds i can concentrate on my game.As most know i like playing cash tables online and the odd tournament now and again.As its been a while since ive played at any great length i have just stuck to low buyin games $12 Tournies being my biggest buyin and mainly the $5 and $10 ring games.What i have noticed is the games seem to be playing like they were a few years ago, everyone seems to be playing super loose and gambling a lot more. The problem with it is it can test your patience when they start hitting there miracle cards and busting you. Now this is ok on cash tables (as long as they dont hit and run). As we know we will get it back from them in the long run. But in tournaments it can test your patience i have bubbled a couple in the last few days to crazy suckouts and to players who just cant read the board and call no matter what. I am hoping i get to meet these players again in other tournaments as now know a lot more on how to aproach them.I have played a few forum games and noticed a few more new names which is good but also noticed the games that i have played a lot of the regs were not there.I must say it does seem very quiet in this forum and not much has happened since i had my 1st Op in March.Anyhow hopefully see a few of you on the cash tables or Omaha tournaments in near future. I know there are many in here who are better at Tournaments than me so hit the O8 games as they are very weak what i have played last few days, just need the cards to hold up LOL.Played about 3k cash table hands and again the play is not great so there is $s to be made there as well. I know its only a small sample of games ive played but what i have seen is more gamblers than when i was last playing.

Few FT places in the omaha tournaments and i managed to T1D earlier, so im hoping to get a few more this month, am after the $12 buy in $500 1. Have not had much luck with the 1s i have played last few days but know if i can get my hands to hold up i can go on a deep run.

There are quite a few low buyin games to enter and know many of our forum regs can go on and win these, just watch a few of the games to see what hands turn up, you will be quite shocked. If i can win i know many in here can.

Its that time of year again where i get to look like an extra in a porn film or village people.I am hoping to raise a few quid, i will be donating 25% of any tournament or sngs from this month, so hopefully i make a few deep runs.If anyone would like to make any donations they can by sending to me via my page on face book there is a link there or by in 888 where i will put it in.I know lots of others are doing this so i dont want people to donate if they are already donating to other causes etc i dont want this to appear to be a begging blog.If you get a chance take time to read the movember page and you will see how it was created and how it has grown.Good luck in your games all.

The first thing we would want to do is stand out and make players want to play on our site.What do us players want from a site? Well we want our games to run smooth and we also like to be rewarded when we play on the site that we choose.

1. Have a good rake back for the loyal players from the micros to the high rollers.

2. Have more game choice, not everyone wants to play turbo crap shoots. So with sngs have 3 structures to keep everyone happy. So from whatever buyin you get 3 differnt blind levels. Hyper turbo where blinds go up every 2 minutes. The standard turbo where its 5 minute blinds. Then a regular game like the old days after every 10 hands blinds go up. Also would change the payout structure for 6 max tables to how it was where top 3 got paid, the sngs use to be so much more traffic years ago. Also have find a player option so we can jump in and join in or rail them.

3. Tournaments i would run as above like the sngs but only have 2 of them 1 at a faster pace and the other a deeper and slower blind levels. This would also show what games the players want to play. I would only have late reg run for a maxium of an hour, we dont need any longer.

4. Have more poker variants, lets try to bring them all to this site. The more games the more players you will attract. Lets have stud tournaments running.

5. We have cam games already so why cant we have live dealers for the games we play. Would have to be worth the sites time so would have to be minimum amount buyins prob $1-$2 cash games and above. Tournaments and sngs above $20.

6. Promote the forum more, lets get an active vibrant place going. Encourage posters have a reward system in the forum where they can win tournament tickets.

7. Lets bring back the league again. Have prizes to live events or bigger buy in tournaments. Its always good to rail fellow forum players and see how they are running in live events.

8. I would also reward any Royal flush that a player gets whether it in a tournament or cash table. Even if its just a branded T-Shirt or a tournament ticket or a % thats been collected like in our jackpot tables. If everyone knows that they have to pay an extra amount for a jackpot before the game i am sure the prizepool will grow in all games.

9. In all it would be a site that caters for all types, from the grinders to the gamblers.

10. Have a chance to meet up and play our fellow forum members from all over the world, have a game where the forum members can satelite there way up to win a package to a big live event like the WSOP. Can you imagine the buzz it would bring in here if we saw one of our own going deep in the main event.

It has been a dream of mine that one day i will get to this great place and play in the World Series.

Its good to have targets in poker and in life and its good to dream about the things that could one day maybe happen if we are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.Now if i was lucky enough to ever get to Vegas, what would i do?There is so much on my bucket list to do if i get there i dont think there would be enough hours in the day to do it all in a week.For starters i would have to get my photo taken under the sign to prove that i had actually made it there.

I would have to walk down the strip to experience the wild and wacky place, i would have to find a steak house that does realy big cuts as i have heard there steaks are mouthwatering.After my feed i would have to go and see one of the great shows out there and it would probably be cirque du soleil as i have seen this 3 times in England and loved every show, if you have never seen it you most go at least once it is mindblowing.I would then have to do the Grand Canyon tour in a helicopter as have seen pictures and again its something that i think has to be done if i was there.

Now the main reason for going is to play in the casinos and venues that we see on the tv and it would be great to experience it first hand.I would have to go to the Bellagio just to see Bobbys room and hopefully see some of my poker heroes. Then i would go to the Wynn as hear this is good for recrational players and is a good place to make some dollars from the fun drunk players. There are several others that i would also have to try out.

Now what would i do different to play in the Crazy 8s game? Well if i have to do something different i would still try play my best that i can, but i would play it differently as i would either get 888 shaved into my head or dye my hair blue the colour of the 888 emblem i think that is crazy enough for me.

Well if i am lucky enough to win such a great package and even get out there i feel it would only be fitting to give something back to the forum and hopefully give lots of members the same sort of chance. So if i was lucky enough to cash in the event i would give a nice percentage to the forum regulars.If you scroll to the top picture. I have a dream. I do and its quite a funny one as i often dream of making a final table with the big names at the WSOP and there are all our forum regs on the rail cheering me on. We can all dream, but maybe one day my dream will come true.

Setting myself new year resoloutions or targets.I try and set myself a target every year in poker since i started to take it more seriously probably about 9-10 years ago, around the time my son was born.In the past i would set myself an amount that i would hopefully reach every month to add to my wages and help pay the bills etc. Now as you all know you can go on some hot runs or some very cold runs so you could have a couple of good months followed by a couple of bad, so now i set myself a more realistic target and that is for the whole year to account for the swings that we go through.Now my present target this year is to hit the tournaments live and online i have set aside a set amount for the year for live games and online games.Now i was hoping to play 3-4 live games a month and as many online games as i could online. Well not everything works out or goes to plan as work or my health gets in the way. So far only played 3 small live games and 151 online which is a realy small amount compared to the amount of hours i use to put in on cash tables.My live games i am in profit and online at a small loss.

Now by the end of the year i will have hopefully played 30-40 live tournaments with buyins varying greatly from £20 to £300 hopefully cashing in the smaller buyins to fund the bigger buyins. And am hoping by the end of year to hit a 800-1000 tournaments played online and will be playing sats to live games.My goal would be to make a final table in a big live tournament and final table one of the challenge games online.Now i have done both of these above in the past coming 2nd in a super stack event and winning a high roller event online and this is when i havent foccused on tournaments which i am trying to do this year.I have found in only my short amount of games played so far this year the variance is a lot higher than cash tables and i am adjusting my game against these new player types that i have come across in tournaments.

What you hope to achieve in the future if you are successful?

It would be nice to show some profit when i get to the end of the year, and i know if i get a bit of luck and do manage to go deep in a bigger buyin game i could win some nice money.Now i dont think i will make what can be made on the cash tables in a year playing tournaments but playing cash tables you dont get the buzz you get from going deep in a tournament.I have also decided to play fewer tables whilst playing tournaments so i can focus on the players and whats going on betting styles etc.I have hopefully had my last operation last week so i can now get back on track to playing more and make a real go of this.My next steps are going to be get my graph going the right way hopefully my cards hold up and i win my fair share of my coin flip situations.I am also writing a journal so you can follow my story through out the year in there and it does help getting the odd comment in there as makes it worthwhile updating it.Heres hoping for some more photos like this one.

And to those that havent played in a forum birthday bash game make it your new years resoloution to play one as its a great weekend where you get to meet up with your online poker mates...."window.parent.tinyMCE.get('body').onLoad.dispatch();" contenteditable="true" />

Setting yourself a target.Every year since i have played poker online i have set myself a target or a challenge. There are so many of my friends that i know who also play that set no target and only play to pass the time and make a quick pound here or there.One of my good mates who i have played poker with for years is a big winner live but online he just bleeds his money away and plays it in a different mindset. I have known him to load up hundreds every week and every now and then he will have a big score but he will take a shot at bigger games and be back to square one.I have told him to set himself a target and not to play at levels to high, but he is his own man and not one to listen. I see players on a regular basis online and i have loads that have big losses through out there games. And yet they always load back up and continue playing not having learnt from there mistakes.Now we all go through down swings but its how you adjust to them and deal with it.So whether you play cash tables , Sngs, or tournaments you should set yourself a target or a challenge. Whether it be trying to earn 100BB at your level a week or trying to get a nice ROI on sngs or tournaments a month or year.Every month go over your hand histories see where you are winning or where you are losing where you have leaks, we all learn from our mistakes.It doesnt matter if you go on a losing run which seems to last forever if we check our hand history and see that we got it in good, where we were a favourite but got sucked out on we just have to move on to the next one.I hate it when i check my graph and i see it going down in a massive decline, but i know we all get these blips and in the long run it will start going up.When i sit down on cash tables i like to get in a thousand hands a session which is not much to some of you multi tablers out there.And when i play sngs i like to set a two to three hour time limit on it so i can get up and get food and drink etc.If i play tournaments i will norm load up about three to four and have a couple of cash tables on the go on the side. And set four to five hours of game play for the tournaments.To many times i see players enter tournaments and they rush as they have not set them selves to play. Dont play if you dont have the time to go the distance.Also never just play for playings sake you will soon go through your bank roll.So next year set your self a target whether it be to earn a set amount by the end of the year or to get to a Final table in a main event or to get on some sort of leader board.I guarantee if you set your self a target or a challenge you will enjoy playing more and not be playing on auto pilot just going through the motions.My targets next year will be to play more tournaments and hopefully make a final table in one of the special tournaments online (Like the challenge tournaments). And hopefully get to play a big live tournament once a month live.Good luck to all of you. And if anyone wants me to try and do a challenge let me know as i may be up for it.

Now ive been about a few years and met all sorts from people down to there last penny to millionares. But you know what i find about the true poker players out there the ones that seem to be around for ever. Theres a trust. Years ago i was playing and having a bad run of things and funds were getting tight my son was soon to be born and i had to watch my money. Anyhow i knew a game was going to be played that night it was a £50 tournament and knew the standard was very fishy, i probably had about £50 to my name at that time (thats another story how i was so broke).Now that £50 would have been the food shopping and pay bills etc you know how it is. I new 1 of my good mates that would be there as well, when i got there he was there with another guy who i new from years ago and hadnt seen in years. There were about 60 runners any how i was going deep playing prob to tight both my mate and other guy were knocked out and were now on cash tables. I remember this hand well as it was just before the bubble. I was dealt AKs on the button and a big stack had raised in ep, now i was aware of the bubble and i wanted to cash but this hand was to strong to fold so i called. The flop came 8s 6s 2s jackpot. He bet out and i remeber yep i can double up here but again dont want to scare him off by reraising. So i called the turn was a brick a red 4. He jammed and i snapped he had 9s 10s happy days. Nope the river came 7s he hit the straight flush, that winded me, my mate Paul was now standing over me and he was in shock to. I was gutted but know it can happen. We went to the bar where my mate brought me a pint and said you should sit at the cash tables i said i was broke and couldnt, he called his mate over and just like that he said how much you need, you played a great game and just had a sick beat you can beat this lot. Now this is a bloke that hardly knows me offering me money, its like a poker code he knows my mate and knows that i would be good for it. Ive never forgotton that night as i went on to have a heater of a night i sat down with a hundred that my mates mate had loaned me, we played till the early hours all 3 of us coming out winners i gave him £100 back and said heres another £100 you got me out of a tight spot he refused the extra and just said if ever he was in a tight spot and im about remeber this night. I made a good friend that night and we still catch up from time to time and hes still out there playing the circuit.Now we have all come accross scammers and cheaters who want to rob from others, these players dont last. I have come accross cheating a few times in the games i have played through the years,these people get found out and you know what the cheaters and scammers that have been caught i dont see them playing anymore, its funny there was one guy that was playing our local games and we are all a tight group and thought we were all on the same level, but oh no there was one who always seemed to win when he was miles behind and he was dealing. It didnt take long to see and catch he was base dealing (dealing from bottom if you didnt know the term).Why would you want to steal from your own mates? He new he only had to ask and we would have subbed him what he wanted.It didnt go down well at the table someone cheating your own lot. His money was taken back and he was driven home, never to be seen at the tables again infact i havent seen him since that game heard he moved away to Spain.So any new people looking in on this blog, know one thing play fair, play strong but dont cheat and dont steal from the poker world. Theres a code amongst the poker world dont get greedy and dont break it.

There is 1 hand that stands out for me and most of you know what hand it is. JACK TEN SPADES.Now let me tell you the history of this hand and why i like it. I got my first Royal flush with these 2 cards and have hit more Royals with these than any other 2 Face cards.Also when my son was very young i told him to pick a card from the pack which he liked the best and he chose the Jack of spades so it was like he new that was my favourite card and i hadnt even told him.My fist major live tournament i played was a £200 pot limit hold em re-buy event which was back in 2006 in The Vic. I got through the re-buy and add on stage without rebuying or taking the add on and had about average stack. One of my first hands after the break i get dealt the hand JACK TEN SPADES i had been playing for 4-5 hours and had a LAG image but had shown down some strong hands.There was a raise from early postision from a guy that had been bossing the table and had a huge stack and i called in late pos. I remember the flop bringing the Ace of Spades and two low cards but 1 was another Spade. The guy C bet the flop as he had done every time and i decided to just flat call his bet and see what he was going to do on the Turn. The turn was a red Jack which improved my hand but i could still be behind. He checked and i checked behind him. The river was the other red Jack. He dwelled up for quite a time and then bet out half the pot, with me reraising the pot i was basically allin, i remeber him saying you missed your flush and called me, he was right i had missed the flush but hit nice runner runner Jacks he was not that happy and only Flashed an Ace never sure what his kicker was to this day.In the same Tournament just before the bubble i was getting very short having lost a big hand Kings into AQ he hit an Ace so was prob down to 10 or less BBs.The table big stack was raising every hand at this stage as new there were loads folding just to get in the money. So once again but this time im in the BB he raises but this time i thought if i re-pot going allin he can only call with a strong hand as he would think i would only be doing this with a top hand. And as he had been raising every hand i would be unlucky if he did wake up with a big hand.He snapped me of Ac Ad oooppps. As it was hand for hand every one was saying wow he must have the other Aces or Kings, they got quite a shock when i turned over J 10 of spades.Boom again i got lucky flop Spade Spade Spade. I doubled up didnt bubble and went on to cash.If we only waited for the top ten hands we would get predictable and easy to play against that is why we need to pick a hand or two and play them as though you have got Aces, sometimes you will get caught out but even a hand like Jack Ten Suited v Aces we have about 20% chance pre-flop and 40% v AK and about 50% v 99 or lower pair. And if you do get caught out the next hand you play could well be AA but in there minds they may still think your at it and call you down light.

To what extremes have you gone to in order to play a particular poker game?

It was hard to know where to start in this months blog as i have quite a few stories that i could put forward.

But i would have to say it would be when i was on holiday in Puerto Pollensa with the family, and the Birthday Bash weekend had been set to late for me to change my holiday plans, so i had to break the news to my wife that i would have to get back to sunny Birmingham for the weekend and then fly back to finish my holiday. This is over a thousand miles each way so that is quite extreme to get to the game. My wife was not happy and i had to tell a little white lie and say i was playing in a bigger event where i had a chance of winning over 25k. If she new i was flying back and paying for hotel , flights,trains and taxis, and the potential winnings of the events wouldnt even cover the costs she would definately have said no.

I had no luck in the Tournies running bad, i still remember the hand i went out in the omaha game there was 2-3 limpers and the button raises the pot and i was in the big blind with A A 10 3. Now i had been playing tight so thought my re raise which commited me to the pot and would cripple the original raiser if he didnt have a hand and wanted to call. So i re potted it and only the button called where he said ok lets gamble, AA is never that far ahead in Omaha. I was up against 6678 the flop came A 7 7 happy days. Turn 6 and yep river was 6, so yes it happens live, i remember looking at my good mate Pande and we were both like wow. I had no luck in M E either, Sean crippled me in a hand and played like a beast the whole tournie. Think i won a few sngs and a few quid on the cash tables. But i wasnt there for the money, i am there just to play and catch up with my old forum buds, and have a few drinks after the games.

But as i have said in other blogs it is one game in the year that i wont miss, its not only about the poker its about meeting up with good friends i have made over the years. The craic at the bashes you will find hard to beat at any other poker weekend and its one where you will play with players who have played and won millions to others that play at the micro levels. But we are all the same we all have a love for this forum and the people in it, i know some that dont post much up in the forum or play many of the games but they always support the forum and will help any one out. To all you forum members that havent been to a bash what can i say you are all missing out, theres great poker and great people there where you will make friends for life even if you only see them once or twice a year live.

What are the strangest circumstances you have played poker in?

Well i have told you about 1 when i was in Singapore in a previous blog but there are 2 others that stick out in my head one in Prague and the other was in a curry house in Soho. But i wont waffle anymore in this blog i will write up a separate blog as most of you will be nodding off reading this. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Well it has in lots of ways. Let me explain more, when i was younger i was always the black sheep in the family my brother was the clever one he was head boy at school got all top marks, and there was me who hated school and hated rules, so i broke most of them. I hung about with the wrong group so was often in trouble, my brother went onto universty and i was going down the wrong path. Through my teens to late 20s i was only heading one way, one incident led me and a group getting arrested, and being locked up is no fun, i got acquitted and new then i had to make changes in my life.So the next weekend i wasnt going to go out with my mates, i spoke to my brother and he said he was going to play poker with his mates, well what can i say, thats where my life changed. So instead of going out and being a little sh1t i had found a new love that gave me the same buzz.I went from playing local home games to social clubs and pubs then onto casinos and was playing 3 to 4 nights a week, now im only a recreational player who has found a good hobby that keeps me on the straight and narrow.Poker has giving me many highs and has helped me out when times have been bad, i could never play full time as one im not good enough and two i enjoy my job to much. I have had many breaks from the game but always come back to it and with online poker now its even easier to play every day or anytime when i want. Online poker has helped pay my bills when i was off work after my operations and treatment i had no insurance to cover our outgoings so without online poker we would probably had to sell our house and downsize.So answering your question has poker changed my life, well yes it has and i love the game just as much now as i did years ago i have met some great people at the tables and there is one game a year that i will never miss and thats our own birthday bash i have even cut a holiday short to be at the game. We are all a good bunch in here with all differnt poker skills but we all fit in together and all help each other out.Again i have had to edit this down as wanted to try get my point accross with out boring you all. If you like it give it the thumbs up and if you have any questions fire away.

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